Closed Symbols at Sea

[Sayana]

Spring 13th 517 AV – Outer Oceans between Sahova and Sylira

It had been raining off and on for the last day or so, making the sailing distinctly gloomy and overcast. Even now there was drizzle in the air, yet the winds weren’t dangerous enough for the sails to be rolled up. They sailed despite the weather, even with a mix of the salty splash from the sea combined with the constant rain.

Sayana was crouched and huddled up over a bucket on the open deck. The winds blew about the bow of the ship but did little to disturb her wet and matted hair which clung to her face. Her high hands were cupped over the bucket where she held a small bit of water, but more importantly she held some of her faintly glowing scarlet res. Keeping her focus on the red tinged glow, she focused on the pull and the attraction of her natural element: water.

The raindrops from a small radius around her seemed to be drawn in towards her hands. She had the reach of about a meter in each direction and slowly more water collected in her cupped high hands. Even though she had been at this for several chimes, she was surprised at how little water she could actually collect from the rain, and how much still soaked into her garments.

She released her concentration for a moment and let the collected water fall into the bucket. Then she began anew, and noticed that her pool of res was even smaller than it had been, slowly fading from her hands. She refocused and allowed her mind to settle on the constant pull towards the res in her hands. Inwardly, she noted that despite the inefficiency of the attraction on the rain droplets, she was still able to gather more fresh water this way than what she would have produced through transmutation alone. Somehow using the magic in practice reasserted Clyde’s claims in his book more than any amount of reading could have done.

The Eypharian dumped the next handful of water into the bucket and realized that her res had now completely disappeared. For a moment she considered producing more res to utilize in three sets of cupped hands rather than just one, but then decided against it. There was only so much rain in the air and she also shouldn’t exert herself magically. The bucket could sit outside regardless of her presence and still collect water.

She left the pail out where it was unlikely to be tipped and sought out Clyde, hopefully somewhere drier than outside. Even with reimancy to distract her, she found herself stifled by the small quarters and more so with the dreary weather. In most situations, boredom was rarely an obstacle she to overcome, but here after the tenth day at sea…

“Clyde?” Her tone was hesitant, almost unsure of herself. She did a quick look around to be sure that her next words would only be heard by the mage. In a lower voice she asked, “Would you be willing to teach me a little about glyphing? Even if just to pass the time?”

Despite her lightly phrased question, it was something she had considered more than once after seeing glyphs in action at Sahova. Not to mention, the Grand Oath itself which she had taken so many seasons ago. But to see glyphs used for other purposes had peaked her curiosity. And for anyone who knew her, she wasn’t one to ask to learn something involving writing on a mere whim.

Credit: Shimoje

[Clyde Sullins]

13 Spring 517

Clyde took a deep breath. Slowly he let it out, letting his concerns carry outward in his exhalation. He breathed in again, and opened his eyes. Letting a calming breath exit his lungs he focused on his surroundings, their details. He was sitting in a thick leather chair, with a high ceiling above and a stone fireplace in front of him with a crackling fire within.

Cha sat across his lap, one hand resting upon the surface of the wood. As he commonly did he absentmindedly stroke at the staff, feeling its familiar sensations.

His surroundings were calming, comfortable, and in many ways nice. In the distance he could hear sounds, but he focused instead on his surroundings and they didn't intrude upon his Moment.

Out of sight he heard the familiar voice of Sayana, and so he focused on the sound, closing his eyes once more as he breathed. As he exhaled again he slowly opened his eyes, finding himself not in his Moment but sitting on the edge of a small bunk in a cramped room on a boat.

A small frown crossing his lips, more at being tossed so abrubtly into reality from the sanctity of the Moment he'd built in his mind, Clyde looked up at Sayana. Cha resting across his lap in reality as she had in his mind, it took Clyde a moment after breaking out of his meditation to process her words.

Something about Glyphing... Learning it? Passing the lime?

Focusing on the bit he'd understood, Glyphing, he let out a short sigh. He wasn't opposed to teaching it, of the many magics he knew it was one of the ones he enjoyed teaching most. Plus, he wasn't sure where on the boat to find a lime, let alone how he'd pass one to Sayana.

Scooting over on the small bed Clyde gestured for Sayana to sit. “Close the door on the way in.”

As she entered and he assumed shut the door before sitting, Clyde reached over and started to go through his pack. Full of general supplies he carried about most of the time, the backpack had been stowed in his room since they'd gotten on the boat. Fumbling through he pulled out a bit of chalk, and a small stone covered in carvings cut into its surface. One he had made magically on Sahova, and likewise Glyphed magically with Reimancy.

“Now, tell me, what do you know of Glyphing? I find its best to see where someone is starting knowledge and skill wise before getting in too deep. Its also the better for having the chance to root out any misconceptions before things progress too far.”

Holding up the stone, Clyde stared at Sayana with a blank face, still calm from his meditation.

“Once you are done, I want you to take this for the moment, and try to use magic on this stone, and then tell me what is special about it.”

[Sayana]

Sayana noticed a brief moment of annoyance and confusion from the mage, yet she relaxed as he invited her in. Closing the door behind her, she took a seat on the small cot and turned to direct her full attention on the mage. She knew he liked to teach but she also knew he considered his knowledge precious and not to be given lightly.

The Eypharian gazed curiously as he retrieved a small stone cube from his bag. She immediately noticed the lines etched into the surface and frowned briefly at the simplicity of them. Were they actually glyphs? Each face of the cube seemed to have an ‘X’ or more like a cross engraved.

She looked up at his first question, and was unsurprised that he wanted to know her current status in regards to glyphing. “What I know of glyphing is what I’ve learned from you.” She began simply. “I know that someone who is good at making glyphs can make something as strong as a Grand Oath. Weaker glyphs can store magic, or spells as you like to call it. And somehow the symbols make it so the magic can happen whether or not the mage is there…”

As she started to trail off, she realized that her knowledge didn’t exclusively come from Clyde. “Actually, I encountered some glyphs in Sahova, as a Warden Initiate. For at least two different types of magics.” She seemed to grow shy at this point, since she was embarrassed to admit that she let a wizard actively practice and test magic upon her.

“Anyways, I don’t know what the symbols mean or how to write them. They remind me of what you did when we were out in the Prairie with the rabbit, but you said that was a different magic and not glyphing.”

Pointing at the stone cube she added, “But if that counts as glyphing, then maybe it’s not so hard.” The simplicity of the lines reassured her, although she still remembered the countless lines and symbols at his apartment back in Syliras.

For a moment she paused trying to think of anything else she knew, although she was anxious to get started and see what the rock did. She hoped she hadn’t left out anything important that he had already taught her, but her descriptions seemed to sum up the extent of her knowledge. There was just one last thing that pressed in the back of her mind.

“Is glyphing a world magic?” She asked tentatively.

Sayana would wait for his answer, not wishing to interrupt, then she offered up a high hand near the stone as if to hold it. “May I?”

She would first inspect the little block of stone. He had asked her to perform magic on it. Of course, she couldn’t use hypnotism on it, so that left auristics as the only applicable magic. For a moment she hesitated. All his actions implied that it was glyphed but she didn’t know how it was glyphed.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and began to compose herself. She gathered her often distracted thoughts and brought them to a single focus point. Even as stray ideas flitted through her mind, she took the time to pluck them out and bring them back to her focus. This time she concentrated mostly around her eyes because she wanted to see the aura.

A hint of excitement flowed through her as she opened her eyes, tapping into her djed. She knew there was potential for a glyphed object to show a more vibrant aura, but when she looked at the stone she couldn’t seem to focus on it. She strengthened her resolve and expended more djed as she focused intently on the stone but whenever she thought she was getting close enough to just see a wisp of the aura, she found herself unsuccessful. In fact, it was becoming easier to see the aura of her own hand, a murky reddish brown that was clearly becoming agitated with her efforts.

“It has an aura, does it not?” She asked after a frustrated sigh. Her lips pursed as she looked at the small rock with a glare. Clearly it had thwarted her efforts and she was starting to take it as a personal slight.

Credit: Shimoje

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde listened as Sayana explained what she knew, not correcting her but simply letting her talk. Instead he listened, giving her the chance to examine the stone and thus gain the intended lesson before he said or did anything. Only once she grew confounded by the task he had set her, a impossible one of using magic on the stone, did he speak.

What at first glance to the hypnotist might appear as X's where in fact not said lettering in the traditional sense. Utilizing a pathway around the stone, Clyde had carved a set of waving lines snaking around the cube to make a complete circuit around four faces.

As this occurred three times, each set crossing over four faces with sets of circled pairs of lines crossing over each other on each of the faces, it would perhaps at first glance appear as if a simple if perhaps odd wavy double lined X was cut into each face.

In truth it was all connected, working together as a single continuous pathways encapsulating the entire stone. That was how the glyphs worked, guiding the djed around it.

“First of all, some of what you said is true, to an extent, but not all. Glyphing, at its simplest form, is a means of manipulating magic. Pure magic at least, something magical in its entirety. Impure magic, something not wholly magical, won't be affected by Glyphing. And Glyphing without magic to act upon is no more than scribbles. Transmuted res into an element is technically purely magical, whereas attracted mundane elements controlled by res, or magic, is not purely magical. In normal use the distinction isn't important, except in this case with Glyphing where it is.”

“Grand Oaths on the other hand are its own thing, not traditional Glyphing in the normal sense.”

“The magic I did in the prairie was Summnoning, not Glyphing. Not all symbols and drawn things are Glyphing, no more than a newly made blade is a weapon of death. Usage, skill, and intent are what make things as they are.”

“As for World Magics... Remember what I said before? Personal magic is personal, taking its djed from ones own person to create an effect, usually an immediate one. World magic on the other hand takes djed from the world around you, its rules and workings, rather than the mage directly. So you tell me, which would you say Glyphing is?”

Now that Sayana had finished in her attempt at using magic on the stone Clyde took it back, turning it over in his hands so that Sayana could see each side in turn. He turned it so that it began with an X'd side, the top so to speak, and then continued along the pathway over each intersection till it ended back where it started before canting the cube and showing the next looping set of Glyphs, and did so again till each loop had been followed and the entirety of the surface had been shown.

“As I said, intent is key, though the forms of Glyphs are less important in reality, intent is the real thing of it. My intent here is to circle, to circle endlessly without stopping, circling around and past and over. And that is what it does.”

“This stone has an Aura, but you can't use magic to look at it, nor can I. It is, technically, an Anti-magic effect, or on par with it, albeit a variation on the normal concept of my own invention.”

“You can block something, throw up a wall or a door to stop it. But that isn't subtle, and people notice a wall. This is instead... Something else. There isn't really a good analogy for it... It doesn't stop the djed in the magic, instead it guides it around it, circling it around it, not letting it stop on it, and therefore forcing it past and by without letting it touch it. I call it Stealth Glyphing.”

Pausing, Clyde peered at Sayana, pondering her sudden interest.

“So... Why is it that you want to learn Glyphing all of a sudden?”

[Sayana]

She listened to his explanations, though frowned when he said that glyphing could only be performed on something purely magical. Didn’t glyphed scrolls exist? And how were they solely magical? She also didn’t answer right away when he turned the question back at her as to whether or not glyphing was a world magic. She had hardly seen it in action, particularly being made, and she had no idea whether one had to input their own personal djed to make it work. His phrasing seemed to lead towards it being a world magic, but that was merely Sayana following his speech patterns.

After her failed attempt at auristics, she was beginning to feel guilty for having hardly practiced the entire year. That is, until Clyde admitted that he himself couldn’t even detect the aura – and he was a mage who could see the aura of a star. The Eypharian puzzled at the strength of just a few wiggly lines. Even though she was no longer holding the small stone, her gaze was fixated on it.

“It’s kind of like a disguise,” Sayana surmised as he explained the stealth glyphing properties. “It’s there, but it’s hiding in plain sight. And when you’re seeing it, you’re not seeing it for what it truly is. Because you’re seeing what’s past it. And you might mistake not seeing the aura for just the stone having a very small an insignificant aura.”

His next question surprised her. Not overly, but it still took her a moment or two to gather her thoughts.

“For someone who is bound by a grand oath of high glyphing magic and in constant company with a mage of those talents, isn’t the question, ‘Why has it taken me so long to ask?’ The answer to that, is that I’m not the scholarly type. But if those squiggly lines are really more about intent than the symbols themselves, then I may be up for it. And why now? In Sahova I saw more instances of glyphing being used, one that even involved hypnotism. Even if I never become as good as you, I want to be able to understand how it works and maybe do something small with them.”

It was truly her exposure to the glyphs that made her interested. Plus the grand oath being a constant reminder of the power of glyphing, even if it was merely at the back of her mind.

Directing her attention back at the small rock she asked, “So you said ‘anti-magic’, does that mean against all magic? You didn’t specify which magic you wanted me to use on the stone. Does that mean you can’t even use reimancy to attract the stone?”

She held out a hand wanting to hold it again, although it wasn’t strictly necessary for her observations.

Puzzling over her earlier question of personal magic vs world magic she spoke, “If it’s affecting djed after the spell has already been set, it seems like a world magic. But do you use personal djed to create the ‘intent’ of the lines at the beginning? How are these different from just regular carved lines? And are the stealth glyphs on this stone combined with another magic that is doing the ‘stealth’ part? Or is that just pure glyphing? How do you combine magics?”

At this point she had far more questions than answers but managed to stop herself before getting carried away with too many questions.

Credit: Shimoje

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde shrugged at her assessment, not wrong but not completely right.

“Yes and no. In some ways it is sort of like a disguise, in others less so.”

“As for Grand Oaths, as I've already said, it is sort of its own thing. Its not normal regular Glyphing. It uses Glyphing to work, but in and of itself it isn't in line with normal Glyphing. It works by some other rules or such that allow it to do so, beyond what normal Glyphs can work with.”

From her other questions it was clear Sayana didn't fully understand what he'd told her, or had focused on the wrong aspects and taken what he'd said in a manner he hadn't intended. Assumptions she took from his words which contrasted with what he'd said.

“Anti-magic has several meanings, but within Glyphing it mainly has two. Both of them the work of a master Glypher, and impossible for anyone with lesser skill. The first is the halting of magic use. Djed shackles for instance, something I've made, when worn upon a mage stops them from using personal magic. In that way it is Anti-magic, stopping the use of it so long as it is worn.”

“The other meaning, such as this stone here, is that it is proof from magic, pure magic as I said before, regardless of type. It is not affected by magic, untouchable by it.”

Handing Sayana back the stone, he began to stare off at the ceiling, focusing on a knot in the wood.

“You listen, but you don't hear. I mean what I mean, I say what I say. If it was otherwise, I wouldn't say it.”

Letting out a sigh Clyde paused, focusing on the knot while clutching Cha in his hand.

“Why would another magic be used to make the stone stealth? Does it do anything alone beyond what I said glyphs can do? You see the stone right, using your mundane eyes? Why then would it use another magic? To do what?”

“World magic uses the djed and rules inherent in the world, rather than the djed of the user. I've said this before Say. The effect doesn't matter, the outcome does. Personal magic requires the attention and djed of a user, upkeep so long as the effect lasts. World magic uses tools and rules of the world to do something, or depending on the particular magic to create an item that is imbued with some sort of magical ability. Like Cha here. She is an item imbued with magic. I don't have to give her upkeep, or use Djed to fuel her. She simply is, constantly in the state she has been altered to.”

Clyde could simply directly answer her questions, but he knew that if he did or simply fed her the answers then she would not learn anything. Not learn how to think, rather than being told. Knowing wasn't the same as understanding, being able to spit back facts wasn't the same as comprehending.

“If a chicken scratches in the dirt, does that have intent? If a person then makes those same scratches but on purpose, does that have intent? If a third person later copies down those same scratches to remind the second person of them seeing the chicken scratch in the dirt, does that have intent?”

[Sayana]

“Djed shackles that completely stop the use of personal magic?” Sayana repeated with a hint of a shudder. The idea of her newfound talents being completely blocked off an inaccessible unnerved her.

The Eypharian took the stone again and turned it about in her hand, feeling the etched lines upon it. They were paired and she wondered why they were so squiggly rather than smooth. More like ripples in the water.

She looked up when he remarked on her comprehension, and gritted her teeth. She was about to make a retort when she heard his sigh. It seemed like he was having just as much difficulty explaining the concepts as she was learning them. Or at least that’s what she chose to believe. Regardless, it would keep her from being tempted to abandon the lesson entirely.

“But you might have some stealth magic. I don’t know all the magics you have. You might have something that you can hide yourself with, or something that can influence djed. And then if you pair it with glyphing, then you get a stone that also can be hidden because it directs the djed… unless that’s what glyphing is. The manipulation of external djed.”

Even as she attempted to defend her earlier reasoning, she seemed to be arriving at better conclusions than she was before. However, the Eypharian still struggled to understand what world magic really was, especially since she had only ever used personal magic.

“So it’s definitely a world magic, but all world magic manipulates external djed…” She spoke quietly, more to herself than the mage, and was quiet as he elaborated more on world magic. Even as she listened, she ran her thumb and fingers over the lines of the stone trying to understand how they could have so much power.

Sayana’s gaze turned to the brilliant blue staff as he mentioned Cha’s name. She knew he cared greatly for her and assumed there was something magical about the staff, but hadn’t really considered what made her magical and how the magic was retained.

With the chicken analogy, she first answered, “No” followed by a hesitant “Yes” and a more confident “Yes”.

“Wait, but what if the chicken was scratching in the dirt to make a nest? Or to mark out the location of a nest? Then it has intent, does it not?”

Still attempting to understand the concept of world magic, she carried on partly speaking out loud to herself and partly to the mage.

“So if world magic is about influencing existing djed, or at least external djed, then you don’t actually need to use your own personal djed for it to work? You can just make markings with ‘intent’ and not have to use any of your own magic, and it will still be able to affect magic externally? But people make markings with ‘intent’ all the time. Like with books, or sculptures, or engraving pretty designs on buildings or weapons. Why are those not magical? Or do you have to make sure that the ‘intent’ is to influence magic, I mean djed, and not just to make something look pretty?”

She hoped she was understanding it better but at the same time she was prepared for another ‘I say what I mean, and I mean what I say’ lecture from the mage. Quickly she added, “Could I see an example where you do something easy?”

Credit: Shimoje

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde shrugged once more in response to her question, this time about Djed Shackles.

“I keep a pair around in case a mage goes insane, or something. Its that or kill them.”

His emphasis on the "or something" in the sentence would probably come across as odd, considering the alternative had been insanity.

“Plus, such things as that are another reason its not good to be overly reliant on Personal Magics. Although when it happened to me it wasn't djed shackles, I think it was some kind of poison or bug or something put in me...”

Shrugging once more without elaborating Clyde pressed on to her other questions.

Clyde had learned long ago that most students, Sayana included, where impatient. They wanted to know everything at once, to have it all told at once, while also answering a bunch of questions, and also still going on to explain everything under the sun and why the sun made light. Clyde had also learned long ago that while students wanted that, it wasn't good for them or their learning. He preferred a more piecemeal method, giving info bit by bit so that they had time to digest it before the next bit came.

Half of her questions were quite predictable, but he gave her the chance to ask them as he gave him time to let her listen and think, and perhaps retain a bit or two before her impatience tore her onward to the next thing.

“The stone works solely on Glyphing. No other magic is at use in it. It was a test, a proof of concept. I wanted to prove I could make it, that such a thing would work, and so I did. Ideally it would serve other purposes, and could have additional uses in other forms, but this simply exists to prove it can exist and that my theory was sound. It works, and so clearly it was.”

“Also you don't pair something with Glyphing. Glyphing is its own thing, measured by its interaction with others. Think of magic as ink or paint, and Glyphing as a quill or a paintbrush. You can still toss about ink and paint without it, but you'd rather have a brush. And likewise without any ink a quill is useless, without magic to affect Glyphing is useless. Now you can mix different colors together and paint them with the one brush, but the brush is still just a brush, not a part of the paint.”

“All magics are different though, personal or world. They might have similarities, and you'll find more similarities among magics of the same branch than different ones, but they are still each their own unique thing.”

As Sayana pressed onward, Clyde had no choice but to squash a few more assumptions, things and ideas she was running away from. She was quite getting ahead of herself, and was bound to teach herself something wrong if she refused to follow his lead.

He was somewhat satisfied by her response about the chickens, a first sign that she was actually thinking things through in a proper manner instead of rushing off headlong into things she didn't understand to the wrong end.

“The answer is, it depends. There is no absolute, no yes or no to such a thing, as it depends upon the given particulars.”

“Also you confuse magic intent with the more general intent. You can pick up a sword and have the intent to run me through with it. You can take paint and have the intent to paint a masterpiece. But that more general intent, a willing to an end result, isn't the same as the intent I speak of with Glyphing. It is more specific and directed to the particular intent of the glyphing.”

Taking the bit of chalk he'd remove earlier, he drew a simple symbol in a few strokes on the wooden wall of the room. A simple circle with a line through it. In his mind it was a hole pierced by a blade. His intent was that of a focus.

“There. This symbol has meaning to me, and thus importance in my mind. To that importance I attach my intent, that of a focus glyph. A focus glyph in and of itself is a specific set effect. I meant and intended for it to be that glyph, and to do as it does. Another person marking that same symbol might have no effect. The shape isn't important, except in the sense that it has meaning and importance to me. But its shape has no meaning. But its intent does.”

“Any half trained Glypher looking at this would know it was meant as a focus, would read the intent in it. Now, it might take them longer if they weren't very skilled, or if this had been something more complex, but in the end they'd recognize the familiar intent and be able to piece together the meaning and effect. Probably.”

[Sayana]

Even though Sayana heard Clyde’s assertion on how or at least why he would use the djed shackles, she didn’t internalize it to realize it might apply to her. Regardless, she nodded seeming to understand but thinking they would only be used on some other mage.

She was a little surprised to hear that something had managed to nullify Clyde’s own magic, especially given that he was so advanced and knew so many. Perhaps all the more reason for someone to target his strength. Even though she often used hypnotism frivolously, it was good to be aware that someone could negate her own djed.

His explanation of glyphing solidified in her mind that there really wasn’t any other magic at work in the stone. It was simply directing or channeling her djed, and hence couldn’t be touched. At least not with magic. The analogy of the paint brush and ink further clarified this and began to make more sense as a whole. It seemed like he was making pathways for the magic to flow along, just like ink flowing through a quill and pathways being constructed on the parchment.

Again her fingers ran over the small grooves of the stone. She wondered whether he had etched them with a physical tool or with the use of reimancy. They were wavy, too wavy to have comfortably done it physically, or at least so she thought. Most lines carved in rock tended to be straight and jagged simply due to the material being etched upon.

Emerging from her distracted train of thought, she listened as he elaborated on the concept of intent, magical vs general. This was definitely something she was trying to get at earlier because it didn’t make sense that there would be all sorts of lines and symbols created with intent, but all of which were not magical. It seemed as though very specific magical intent was required. Something that corresponded to how the mage wanted the djed to be manipulated or influenced.

The example helped, and she watched as he drew the circle and line naming it a ‘focus’. She still found it strange that any combination of lines could be used so long as it had meaning to the mage. In that regard, it was almost the opposite of writing. The written language required agreed upon meanings which can’t be changed, where this only needed meaning from a single mage. And yet he noted that another glyphing mage would be able to recognize it as a focus glyph.

The Eypharian was quiet for a time even after Clyde’s words had washed over her. She stared at the symbol for several ticks still trying to understand the idea that as long as Clyde had given the symbol meaning and intent when drawing it, it somehow had power to influence djed. Wordlessly she asked for the piece of chalk with an outstretched hand and reached over to draw her own symbol, a little below his.

She made the criss-cross of an ‘X’ and added a third line vertically down the center. However she did it without specific intent other than to show him. “This symbol has meaning to me, but I don’t think it is the same meaning as your focus glyph. It represents revenge, ownership and identity.”

One of her mid hands subconsciously moved towards her chest where she had scars that matched the symbol, but when she realized what she was doing she dropped her hand quite forcibly. She was about to draw another symbol, even more personal but also more complicated, when she recalled something else.

“Clyde, you once drew a black circle, or the black sun on my forehead when teaching me auristics. Was that meant to be a focus glyph? Or just something for me to focus on?”

She found the idea of creating completely new but meaningful symbols to be a bit intimidating but at the same time she was glad not to have to memorize a series of meaningless symbols.

Credit: Shimoje

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde had learned long ago that a teacher could learn as much as the student in a lesson. Often enough Clyde thought through things deeply when giving a lesson, and often considered or realized things he'd perhaps partially understood before but not truly grasped.

It was one of the reasons he taught as much as he did, took on as many students and apprentices as he did. For his own benefit, for the things he grasped and realized about things he taught. The last such realization during a lesson he could recall was with the Isur in Syliras. This was perhaps another instance as his own words reached him and he fully pondered his words on intent.

Realization worked its way within his mind, internal thoughts hidden from Sayana as he muddled over things, connecting and prodding on the inner-workings of all magic and djed and such high concepts.

Intent, he pondered to himself, was vital in all magics. World magics each had their own particular variant of magical intent, learned and embodying the magic and its path and thereby making the magic work. Intent in making soulmist, in animating a golem, in Magecrafting... All was directing intent with djed to make a change in djed, and thereby making some form of magic to occur by and with djed.

Personal magics took this more directly, the intent more directly following the mages will, but still following a set path for the djed to take, following a learned type of magic to its end point of a creation of some change.

Clyde, pondering to himself once more, wondered if perhaps his earlier meditation had freed his mind of clutter and helped him reach such a realization, or if he'd have realized it on his own without it when the particular messages of the lesson combined into one thing.

Magic though, he knew, was simply Intent of a certain type, and when of a certain magic of said magics certain form and pathway of Intent. At least, he knew it know fully, consciously, whether he'd known it partially or unconsciously before.

It was this grasping of capital I Intent that let magic take place, that occurred during initiation and demarcated the un-initiate in a magic or in magic in general, from a mage or one able to use a particular djed form.

Clyde wasn't sure what this realization meant, what he could do with it, but he knew it was important. The fact resounded deep within him as a utter Truth of Magic, an important thing he now knew. Perhaps in time he'd find a use for the knowledge, but for now it was enough that he knew it. If nothing else it was a first clear connection he clearly understood between all magics of both branches rather than a commonality among World or Personal.

Clyde's own train of thought running off with him coincided roughly with Sayana's pondering, and so he did not notice he quiet. There was also the chance that the moment of realization and internal thought would be lost on Sayana, perhaps who would assume Clyde was simply patiently waiting for her to think on his words.

Breaking free from his mind as he concluded, Clyde pulled himself back to the current lesson to listen, coming back to the present moment roughly as Sayana asked her next question.

“Yes, that was a focus, meant to aid you in drawing your djed there within your body to perform the initiation. It was a focus glyph in the same way this glyph is, though it also acted as a mental focus for you. Often with such things purposes multiply and aren't limited to just the mundane or just the magical.”

“I can do such things, I am a master Glypher, much as I can do Anti-magic because of my mastery. Bear in mind, you could not do the same thing as a new Glypher were you one.”

Heading off the question he knew to be coming, Clyde explained further.

“For the purposes of Glyphing there are two types of magic. Passive, and hostile. Generally any magic done by another mage is going to be hostile, and only possible to be manipulated by a master with Anti-magic level Glyphs. If I cast a spell, even if you used the proper glyphs you'd not be able to capture or affect it. It'd simply overwhelm your work, like a tsunami overwhelming a cup left out in the rain to be filled with water.”

“Your own magic on the other hand will for the purposes of glyphing always be considered passive. Likewise gnosis usually is considered passive, at least the ones I've run into that could be stored with Glyphing. But then since that requires the user to willingly release it into the Glyph, I suppose it is rather passive.”

“Its one of the reasons a new Glypher will generally start off by using their Glyphing to affect or boost their own magics they already have, generally Personal Magic. As your skill grows your ability to Glyph does likewise, and you'll be able to do more with the same. A new initiate will be lucky to help draw djed with a focus, while a fully realized master can affect any magic. I'd not even bother trying to store a spell, or such longer term uses, an initiates Glyphs aren't stable enough. It'd only be a danger, and risk going off at random.”

As he spoke Clyde internally considered the affect on other magics, lining it up with his new realization of Intent working on all magics. All magics seemed to develop over time, growing stronger as the user grew more familiar and grew to know more. Perhaps, he pondered to himself, this was simply a representation of the mage growing to more firmly express their Intent within the specific type of magic. A new initiate hardly grasped the particular Intent, while a fully matured user grasped it utterly... Thus the varying ability to use the magic by varyingly skilled users...

Gnosis, he noted to himself, was different. Gnosis he knew from his own use were fully grasped right away, their intent fully formed. But then, he supposed in a way that made sense. A gnosis didn't rely on the users Intent, but the God whose power it came from.

Returning once more to the conversation, Clyde continued on a bit more.

“Within Glyphing their are three steps, or stages, or levels. A Single Glyph, a block of Glyphs, and a Sigil. Think of a Glyph like a letter, a block like a word, and a Sigil like a completed piece of writing. That is the totality of Glyphing's physical nature and expression.”